Brian Cox was surprised by the success of his Machiavellian character, Logan Roy, on HBO show Succession.

“It’s actually quite shocking because he’s not a particularly lovable person. But I think we live in a very strange age and I think that’s why the show is a success. It’s caught something which is really about, sort of how there’s been a tremendous moral failure, particularly in our politics. I think you’ll find that literally every leader of a known country at the moment is a liar and a fabricator and that actually they’re not very good liars at that,” Cox told HFPA journalist Helen Hoehne.

Logan Roy is the patriarch of his family, the founder and CEO of the multi-billion-dollar company Waystar Royco. “What is interesting about our show is that it also deals with entitlement. And the show, of course, the premise of the show is succession and this man Logan Roy, who is trying to find the right person who is going to take it over and he’s desperately in love with his children but they are a consistent disappointment to him so that makes it rather hard.”

Cox, like his character, is from Dundee, Scotland. His upbringing was rather humble. “I was very blessed. I consider my life, even though early tragedy I consider I’ve been very lucky. I had two great teachers at school. I was hopeless at school. I didn’t fit. I got on because I’m fairly affable but it wasn’t for me. But there were two teachers who kind of saw my potential and they encouraged me to get involved in theater stuff in the school, which I did.”

Eventually, he got a job at the local Repertory theater. First cleaning the stage and running errands. “I was able to be in the company of actors and I observed actors and observed where the actors had come from.”

At 17 he went to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art drama school. That led to a career in theatre, film, and television which spans over 60 years. When he turned 50, he decided to pursue a career in Hollywood, a dream he had since a young actor. “When I got to 50 I realized that I hadn’t really attended to that. I’d followed this career path in the theater so I thought, this is what I want to do. And the thing that got me was when I read this book by Michael Powell and he described in movies there are no big parts and small parts there are only long parts and short parts. I realized that I can make a living playing short parts in movies so I decided I’m going to become a film character actor.”

Now he is the star of a Golden Globe-winning show.The Long Kiss Goodnight